WWUTT 2308 Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath (Luke 6:1-11)

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Jesus Christ said that He is Lord of the Sabbath. What does that mean?

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And how does it apply to us? Do we as Christians have some obligation to keep the Sabbath?

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Or has the Sabbath become something else for us when we understand the text? This is

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When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible study in the word of Christ, that we may press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.

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Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

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Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Luke, we're on to Chapter 6, where we have the

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Pharisees making their third challenge against Jesus. We saw two of them at the end of Chapter 5, and still in that same context, we have a third at the start of Chapter 6.

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And then after that, Jesus is going to counter -challenge them by doing a miracle on the

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Sabbath. And all of this to proclaim and demonstrate that he is Lord of the Sabbath.

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So let me begin by reading here in verse 1 through verse 11. Hear the word of the Lord. On a

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Sabbath, while he was going through the grain fields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands.

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But some of the Pharisees said, Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the

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Sabbath? And Jesus answered them, Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him?

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And he said to them, The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. On another

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Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. And a man was there whose right hand was withered.

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And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath so that they might find a reason to accuse him.

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But he knew their thoughts. And he said to the man with the withered hand, Come and stand here.

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And he rose and stood there. And Jesus said to them, I ask you, is it lawful on the

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Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?

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And after looking around at them all, he said to him, Stretch out your hand. And he did so.

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And his hand was restored. But they were filled with fury and disgust with one another what they might do to Jesus.

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You know, I can't remember the last time that I taught anything on our obligation to keep the

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Sabbath. Like, what responsibility do we have as Christians to keep the Sabbath? Are we even supposed to keep the

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Sabbath? Was that an Old Testament thing? We don't have to do that anymore. So I'll save a portion at the end of this message to address that.

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But here we have this scripture broken up into two parts. Of course, you have verses one through five, where Jesus first says that he is

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Lord of the Sabbath, and then verses six through 11, where he proves through this miracle that he performs on the

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Sabbath, that he is Lord of the Sabbath. And in none of this does Jesus break the law.

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So even in his declaration that he is Lord of the Sabbath, it doesn't mean I can do whatever I want on the

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Sabbath, because as man, of course, he is very God and very man. But as man, he does keep the law that he might fulfill righteousness.

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So he's not breaking any Sabbath command here, neither he nor his disciples, with their plucking the heads of grain in the grain field or Jesus healing a man on the

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Sabbath. He is perfectly in keeping with the law of God and being over the

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Sabbath as Lord of it. So let's begin reading here once again in verse one.

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It says on a Sabbath while he was going through the grain fields. Now in verse six, it says on another

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Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching. So we see these two events happening on different Sabbaths, and they may not have been consecutive

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Sabbaths. I talked about this previously when we were in chapter five. But many of the events that we read about in Luke are not in chronological order.

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Luke will group them according to significance. He's teaching something particular here.

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So he puts these two occasions that happen on different Sabbaths right back to back in his narrative.

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But that doesn't mean that they were necessarily successive Sabbaths. He's making a point here that we would see and understand

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Christ as Lord of the Sabbath and also learning something, too, about our obligations to the

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Sabbath, that if there is somebody who is in need, somebody who needs help, that we would help him.

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We wouldn't make this excuse of, well, I can't do anything for you because it's a Sabbath, but rather we need to do good to one another, even on this day that we have committed to the

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Lord. If we're committed to the Lord, then we'll also be committed to one another. So we'll make that point when we get to verses six through 11.

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But here at the start of verse one, once again, on a Sabbath while he was going through the grain fields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands.

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But some of the Pharisees said, why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the

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Sabbath? Now we read of this also when we were in Matthew 12, same account is given there.

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So you can go back and listen to that lesson because I may have given more details than I'm going to give today as I'm going to go on to the account of the man with the withered hand.

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I don't remember which lesson that was, which episode it was, but it was back previously in Matthew 12, a year or two ago.

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So when I was in that section of Matthew, I had pointed out that in Deuteronomy 23, it says in the law, if you go into your neighbor's standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you may not put a sickle to your neighbor's standing grain.

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So in other words, if you're walking through somebody else's field, it's all right for you to pluck heads of grain and eat them if you like.

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You're not stealing or robbing from your neighbor. And the reason for that, as it's written in the law, is because all of the land belongs to God.

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He's the one who has given it to Israel. So because it all belongs to God, he is giving a person permission to pluck heads of grain that ultimately belongs to the

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Lord and eat them if they would like. There's also something in there about eating grapes if you're walking through your neighbor's vineyard.

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So here on this occasion that we're reading about in Luke 6, the question is not whether it was okay for them to pluck the heads of grain and eat them.

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The question is more a matter of, is it okay to do that on the Sabbath? Or is that considered work?

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Because in the law, it says you cannot take the sickle to your grain on the Sabbath. That's obviously not what the disciples are doing.

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They're not harvesting somebody else's grain. They're just walking through a field and plucking the heads off the grain and eating them.

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Now the Pharisees obviously see this and they make a comment about it. Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the

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Sabbath? My question would be, why are they even out there? If they have such rigid rules about the

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Sabbath, why aren't they resting at home or in the synagogue? Why are they even in such a place where they can see

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Jesus and his disciples walking through a grain field and plucking the heads of grain? Are you not also breaking your own rules regarding the

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Sabbath? But Jesus answered them in verse 3, have you not read what David did when he was hungry?

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He and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the presence, which is not lawful for any but the priest to eat, and also gave it to those with him.

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Now that account is given to us in 1st Samuel 21. And I taught on that one in greater detail when

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I was in Mark 2. So we have this same account given in Matthew 12 in Mark 2 and here also in Luke 6.

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But Jesus giving this account from 1st Samuel 21 is basically to challenge the

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Pharisees with this. Would you have called David a sinner? Would you have said that he had broken the law because he ate the bread of the presence, which only the priests are to eat?

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But the priest took it and gave it to David and to his men because David was being cared for.

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The priest was caring for David and his men, providing for them. You know, this doesn't have to do with the

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Sabbath, but it still has to do with the law, providing for them bread so that they may eat and be nourished and be satisfied.

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And so here the disciples are plucking heads of grain and eating. So are you going to call David a sinner too for needing to have something to eat?

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And the priest gives him the bread of the presence. It wasn't like David just took it for himself. He asked for something to eat.

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And it was the priest who on his own gave David the bread of the presence. So how far are you willing to take this?

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How far does it go? Are you going to call David wicked now and a lawbreaker because he had eaten the bread of the presence?

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And so in verse five, Jesus says to them, the son of man is Lord of the Sabbath. This is

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Jesus to proclaim to them that he is prevailing over the Sabbath day. He's the one who can decide whether somebody is breaking the

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Sabbath laws or not. And once again, this is all to say that Jesus is not breaking the laws himself.

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It's not that he's playing with the laws however he wishes. Well, I can do whatever I want on the

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Sabbath because I'm Lord of the Sabbath. That's not what Christ is proclaiming. Rather, he's the one who decides whether a person has broken the

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Sabbath laws or not. He's the one who wrote them. He's the one who gave them to Moses.

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So who are these Pharisees to say what is wrong to do on the Sabbath when Jesus is the one who wrote those laws and what the disciples were doing was not unlawful.

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This further elaborates on how the Pharisees had written their own laws.

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They were not really following God's law. They had made up their own, which Jesus challenged of them at the end of chapter five.

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We talked about that yesterday. You can go back and listen to that lesson. And so then Christ demonstrates his own lordship over the

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Sabbath, both dictating what one can and cannot do on the Sabbath and even performing an act of love and kindness on the

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Sabbath in the account that we had next in verses six through eleven. So on another

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Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching. And a man was there whose right hand was withered.

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And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him watching Jesus to see whether he would heal on the

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Sabbath so that they might find a reason to accuse him. So already in their hearts, they're devising evil.

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Of course, they're devising evil against a man who's never done any wrong. Jesus healing on the Sabbath is not sin.

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So he never commits any injustice whatsoever. And yet the

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Pharisees are wanting to accuse him of it, though he would heal a man. Their hearts are not inclined toward this man with a withered hand.

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Oh, I hope Jesus heals his hand. What an incredible gift that would be to this man. That's not where their hearts are.

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Their wicked hearts are waiting for Jesus to do something wrong. But Jesus knew their thoughts, it says in verse eight.

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And he said to the man with the withered hand, come and stand here. And he rose and stood there.

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And Jesus said to them, I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?

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So here's essentially the challenge that he's giving to the Pharisees. If I heal this man's hand, because remember, they're watching to see if he would heal.

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They believe he has the power to heal. And if he does heal, then they think they have a reason to accuse him that he was doing work on the

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Sabbath, something that was contrary to the law of God. And so Jesus is essentially saying to these

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Pharisees, if I heal this man, that would be good. Wouldn't you agree? That's good that I did this good thing for this man.

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So what is lawful to do on the Sabbath? Good. But Jesus not doing anything for this man, wouldn't that be harmful now?

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He's challenging the Pharisees hearts because what are they devising in their hearts? They're devising harm on the

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Sabbath. They're devising harm. So Jesus is really set. He's really setting at contrast himself with them.

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He who is righteous with those who are unrighteous. So he means to do good on the

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Sabbath. They mean to do harm. What is better to save life, he says, or to destroy it?

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And to restore this man's hand would certainly be life giving for this man that he might have a way now to have two good, strong hands that he might labor and provide for himself, perhaps even for his family.

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And so Jesus looking around at them all, he says to the man, stretch out your hand. And he did.

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So he stretches his hand out. And as he extends his hand, his hand is restored.

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This goes back to something I mentioned a couple of weeks ago about the miracles that Jesus performed happened immediately.

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It wasn't something like you see the charismatics or the faith healers do today when they declare healing for somebody.

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And, you know, maybe they stand up a little bit straighter or they they claim they feel a little bit better or something like that.

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And then after time goes on beyond their little healing service, it turns out they didn't really do anything for this person at all.

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When Jesus heals somebody, it's immediate right away. The lame man gets up and walks the man with a withered hand.

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It's immediately better. The guy with leprosy instantly. He has no leprosy. These are true miracles as we see them in scripture, whether it was

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Jesus who did this or a prophet or one of his apostles or somebody else. The miracles happened right away.

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And it was a clear sign that something miraculous, something supernatural had taken place.

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And so this man's hand is restored. But in verse 11, the Pharisees were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.

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And so what we understand out of this is that Christ is Lord of the Sabbath. He is the one who has declared what is good to do on the

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Sabbath and what we should not do in keeping this day in honor of the Lord. And likewise, in seeing what we should do, we should care for one another.

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We should indeed love each other and serve each other, even if it's on the Sabbath. And in so doing, we are keeping the law of God, loving one another.

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It would be harmful for us to withhold aid on the Sabbath, to just sit there and do nothing and think that we're being holy in that way.

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It is the Lord's day, as the Sabbath is described, as Sunday is for us.

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And so we must do on that day what God has prescribed for that day. And caring for one another is one of those ways that we would fulfill even the

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Sabbath. Now, on that note, what obligation do we as Christians have to the

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Sabbath? Now, I believe and have taught and still have consistently believed this, that Christ has fulfilled all the laws pertaining to the

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Sabbath. So there are laws for the Sabbath that were only applied to Israel and do not apply to us.

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Christ has fulfilled that. And he is our Sabbath rest. So every day that we rest in Christ, instead of trying to do our own works to attain our own righteousness, but we wear the righteousness of Christ by faith in him for every single day for the

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Christian, that is a day of Sabbath rest because we rest from our works in Christ and it's his righteousness that we wear.

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So the Sabbath is a type and shadow in that way and points us to Jesus. I've consistently taught that my entire pastoral ministry.

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At the same time, there still is need for us to separate a day out unto the

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Lord. That has been a statement that God has even placed within nature from the very beginning of creation.

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You have a seven day creation or a six day creation. Oh, I messed up right there. One of my own videos where I talk about creation, not being seven days.

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That's absurd to say that creation is seven days. It was only six days and God rested on the seventh. And I committed my own error there by saying seven day creation.

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That was a six day creation. And then God rests on the seventh. That's built into creation.

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And so God does mean for us to take a day that we would rest from our work and give it to him.

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That is why the first day of the week, Sunday in the New Testament is the

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Lord's day. It's called the Lord's day. That's his day. And that's the day that we should be giving unto the

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Lord. Now, it changed from Sabbath to Sunday, from the last day of the week to the first day of the week, because that's the day of the week that Christ rose from the dead.

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And also because when the church was being planted, where was it that they went to read the scriptures?

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Well, they had to go to the synagogue on Saturday. The synagogue was filled with Jews doing

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Jewish rituals, still holding to the old covenant. So when the church was being planted in that 40 year period between Jesus ascension into heaven and the eventual destruction of the temple, which happened in AD 70, in those 40 years, the

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Christians would meet on Sunday because the Jews were not keeping their

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Sabbath laws and keeping their time in the synagogue on Sunday. So that's another reason why it worked out so well for Christians to be gathering together on that first day of the week.

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And you have various descriptions of that in Acts and the

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Apostle John saying at the start of revelation that he was in the spirit on the Lord's day. So he's talking about the revelation coming to him beginning on a

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Sunday. So this is the day that has been set aside by Christians that we would honor the

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Lord. Now, let me read to you from our confession of faith that my church has adopted the

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London Baptist Confession, Second London Baptist Confession, which was drafted in 1689.

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And this, you know, very similar to what we read in the Westminster Confession as well. This ties us with church history and the honor and the reverence that we show for that particular day of the week, which we keep as a

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Christian Sabbath. So let me read to you here, chapter 22, paragraphs seven and eight, as it is the law of nature that in general, a proportion of time by God's appointment be set apart for the worship of God.

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So by his word in a positive moral and perpetual commandment, binding all men in all ages, he is particularly appointed one day in seven for a

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Sabbath to be kept holy unto him, which from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ was the last day of the week and from the resurrection of Christ was changed into the first day of the week, which is called the

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Lord's day and is to be continued to the end of the world as the Christian Sabbath, the observation of the last day of the week being abolished.

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All right. That's paragraph seven. Here's paragraph eight. The Sabbath is then kept holy unto the

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Lord. When men, after a due preparing of their hearts and ordering their common affairs of forehand, do not only observe a holy rest all day from their own works, words and thoughts about their worldly employment and recreations, but are also taken up the whole time in the public and private exercise of his worship and in the duties of necessity and mercy.

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So there you go. There's what our statement of faith says about a Christian's obligation to the

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Sabbath. And by the way, drawing from the scriptures in order to summarize those things, Exodus 20, verse eight, first Corinthians 16, one and two acts, 20, verse seven, revelation, one, 10,

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Isaiah 58, 13, Nehemiah 13, 15 to 22 and Matthew 12, one through 13, which of course is where Christ proclaims that he is

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Lord of the Sabbath. Those are some of the passages that have been used in order to draft that particular statement about about a

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Christian's obligation to the Sabbath. Now, you will notice there that it's not especially particular, not very detailed as to what kinds of things that we can and cannot do on the

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Sabbath. And indeed, Romans 14, five and six says this, one person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike.

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Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the

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Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God. And the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the

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Lord and gives thanks to God. Going on to verse seven, for none of us lives to himself and none of us dies to himself.

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For if we live, we live to the Lord. And if we die, we die to the Lord. So then whether we live or whether we die, we are the

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Lord's for to this end, Christ died and lived again that he might be

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Lord, both of the dead and of the living. And so you apply that also to the fact that Christ is the

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Lord of the Sabbath. This also is said in Colossians two, verse 16. Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a

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Sabbath. These are a shadow of things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

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There are going to be some varying opinions about the Sabbath, even among the brethren, even among Christians.

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And we need to be respectful of those differing opinions and encourage one another in those opinions, recognizing that one keeps the day in honor of the

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Lord, though we may disagree on what extent the Sabbath should be kept in that way.

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Let us be charitable with some of those things, not accusatory, not flying off the handle with one another over certain things that we may have a differing opinion of.

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And one who is more mature understands the Sabbath in one way, and one who is less mature may not recognize certain things about the

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Sabbath. But remember, it is said in Romans 14, one still in that same chapter for as the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.

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And then at the start of chapter 15, we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the week and not to please ourselves.

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Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up. We use the

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Sabbath to love one another as Christ demonstrated there in Luke 6, not to tear each other down, not looking for ways that we might devise evil against one another or accuse each other and divide in the body over these things.

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But let us together keep the Sabbath in honor of the Lord. What is especially important for us to do together as Christians is to gather together for church.

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That especially should be what we have committed the Lord's day to doing.

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And as we read in Hebrews 10, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful.

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And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

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Amen. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read here today. And may we remember that Christ is

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Lord of the Sabbath. And there would be that day that we commit unto the Lord, worshiping you, gathering with the saints, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody in our hearts to God that we would hear the word of God proclaimed, that we would partake together in the

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Lord's table, eating and drinking together, that we would encourage one another in these things, praying for each other and building one another up in this most holy faith that we share.